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The former Austin social media consultant, who used Twitter under the handle @SmartWoman since 2008, had thousands of followers. But, for a number of reasons, she deleted her Twitter account. She unfriended Facebook. Gave Google+ the heave-ho. Pulled the plug on Pinterest. If she hadn’t already gotten rid of her Instagram account in December, when the service was looking to change its terms of service, she would have said goodbye to that social network, too.

Last month, in a list of 2013 tech predictions, I speculated that this would be the year when many people begin to pause or delete their social media accounts out of exhaustion and overload. In just the month since I wrote that, I’ve already witnessed several online friends and contacts put their social media accounts on hold or abandon them altogether.

Flaugher’s reasons for getting out of social media were both personal and professional. Her job switched from dealing with social media to dealing in joint ventures, brokering deals between companies. She no longer had to participate in social media at such a high level for a living.

But there were many more personal reasons. Her father died in 2011, causing her to re-evaluate her life priorities. She went through a breakup and purged many of her personal belongings. As her life began to get into focus, Flaugher began to realize that social media outlets were causing her more problems than they were solving.

“What I struggled with and ended up deciding against was the noise,” she said. “The constant connection was exhausting to me.”

Last year’s presidential election, with its heated rhetoric and online ugliness, and the gun debate that followed the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Conn., she said, were straws that broke the camel’s back. “There were people screaming at each other and calling each other hateful names. At a certain point, I decided the noise wasn’t worth the value I was getting,” Flaugher said.

Her physical fitness was suffering and she found herself “digitally exhausted.” “You get twitchy if you haven’t checked your texts,” she said.

So she took a 30-day break. When she went back, Flaugher said, “The spell had been broken.” She says she still believes in social media, but because they were so time-consuming and potentially addictive, they just didn’t make the cut when she began to set new life priorities.

And here’s the most interesting part: When she announced she was going to shut down her social media accounts, many of her friends took notice. And some of them were jealous. They told her they wish they could quit social media, but they can’t.

She wrote in a blog post, “Many have confided in me that they cannot get quiet anymore. They are compelled to stay in the noisy space because they fear being out of the loop. They dread being alone. They long for real connection but feel overloaded by superficial exchanges. They miss a handshake, a friendly hug — the simple joy of being touched in real life … They know all that is somehow not quite right.”

Once upon a Twitter, social media were supposed to be frivolous and, you know, social. But for many, they have become actual work. And that work is piling up, accelerating, as more people join the fray and the volume level is cranked up.

The anxiety of missing something, of not being on top of what’s going on or being part of activities (known as FOMO or “Fear Of Missing Out”) has gotten so bad that many people can’t stop being online, says Larry Rosen, a professor of psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Rosen wrote the book “iDisorder: Understanding Our Obsession With Technology and Overcoming its Hold On Us.” He says increasingly, he sees people becoming more anxious about the time they have to devote to checking in with their technology.

“Some are opting to let go of it all, which fails miserably within 24 hours or so while others are learning to cut back. But it is difficult,” Rosen said in an email. “There is always something more to read, a link to follow, a ‘Like’ to click, a comment to make, a status update to post and so on.”

Rosen says the dopamine hit we get from positive online social interactions can lead to addiction. But, more often, Rosen said, we simply don’t want to feel left out. So we check in. And check in. And then it’s 2 a.m., and where did the time go?

Quitting cold turkey as Flaugher has done may be impossible for some, especially those who are required to use social media in their jobs or in school. But Rosen believes that training the brain through short “tech breaks” can help.

The way they work: “You start by checking in with your technology — mostly communications and social media — for a minute, and then turn off those websites on your computer and silence your phone,” Rosen said.

You set a visible alarm out for 15 minutes before you can get back online. Then repeat the process, increasing the break time from 15 to 20, then 30 minutes.

Feel like a meth-addicted lab rat, much? Rosen says the process works. “I am using this in classrooms, restaurants, board meetings, family dinners, anywhere that people self-interrupt to constantly check in with their social worlds.”

This may be the year of the Social Media Break. Or lots of breaks, extended vacations and break-ups with social media.

Flaugher so far feels deep relief since quitting. “Within minutes of deactivating my accounts, I started feeling the stress of having those connections gone,” she said. She plans to write a book about the experience over the next year.